1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to transparent enclosures, and, more particularly, to acrylic frame carton enclosures that are used in the packaging industry which can bind packages together, and which also can themselves bind multiple carton enclosures together.
2. Description of Prior Art
Packaging small containers together in large groupings is accomplished in the packaging field typically by placing small containers into a box or other type of carton. When viewing of the small containers is desired, plastic shrink wrap or other material placed over the entire package is utilized. If a user desires to group small containers together and leave areas open for affixing coupons and other promotional material combined, the package design has significantly more limitations. Another known method of attaching packages together is use of adhesive strips or like material. U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,901 disclosed the utilization of an adhesive label to be applied to the bottom of packages in order for binding of two packages together into a single unit. However, the use of adhesives in such a manner limits the availability of combining large number of packages together and doesn""t allow easy access to the bottom surface covered.
An alternative embodiment is displayed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,993 wherein a long band is applied to both the side surface of two packages so that they may be affixed in side-by-side relationship. However, ready access to the various surfaces of the packages is not available in such an embodiment. There are a number of different apparatuses known in the prior art for the application of binding packages together. None of these prior art references, however, teach the application of a transparent frame carton enclosure wherein the various panels of the package or container are available for access of the application of additional advertising material or other printed matter. Additionally, none of these prior art references allow the binding mechanism to be releasably attached to a neighboring binding mechanism so that the combined packages may be affixed together or combined in formation.
The present invention is for a transparent frame carton enclosure which binds a plurality of small packages together into a single unit. The transparent carton frame enclosure of the present invention allows the packages to be bound together in such a manner that the various surfaces of the packages are available for adding printed material, advertising information or potentially tax stamps, as is commonly the case for cigarette products.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a transparent frame carton enclosure which allows multiple packages to be bound together in carton-like form.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a transparent frame carton enclosure wherein the upper surface of the packages are readily available for attachment of tax stamp or other like material.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a transparent frame carton enclosure wherein an upper frame enclosure and a lower frame enclosure is utilized and adhered to both the upper portion of the combined packages and the lower portion of combined packages.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a transparent frame carton enclosure wherein each of the frames of the carton enclosure have a releasably engageable attachment mechanism for binding together adjacent combined package units in a secure manner. Thus, the combined package units which the transparent frame carton enclosure creates may be releasably attached to a neighboring combined package unit and each of the units thereby may be stacked to create a display or other secure formation.
Even more particularly, the present invention comprises a transparent frame carton enclosure which encloses a plurality of packages, preferably cigarette packages, and wherein the carton enclosure is comprised of an upper frame portion and a lower frame portion. The upper frame portion wraps circumferentially around the upper exterior sidewall portion of the combined package unit, namely for cigarette packages, combined package units resembling cigarette cartons. The combined package unit also incorporates a lower frame portion which circumferentially wraps the lower sidewall portion of the combined package unit. Both the upper frame portion and the lower frame portion of the transparent frame carton enclosure securely retain the plurality of packages of the combined package unit together in a form which is similar to the commonly known cardboard carton and which also allows ready access to both the front surface and top or bottom surface of each individual package contained within the combined package unit.
Even further, the present invention incorporates utilization of an upper frame portion and a lower frame portion wherein both the upper frame portion and lower frame portion includes use of a locking bead and locking groove so that adjacent package units may be releasably locked together in secure form. These and other objects are met by the transparent frame carton enclosure of the present invention.